Panos Mekras, a developer on the XRP Ledger, has commended First Ledger for its RLUSD liquidity incentive, which has quickly attracted $500,000 in XRP liquidity within 24 hours, offering a 12.8% APR. Mekras highlighted that he proposed a similar liquidity boost plan to Ripple in 2025, which was largely ignored despite its potential to increase trading volumes. Mekras argues that a significant allocation of 1 billion XRP for community and builder grants is necessary to enhance XRPL's DeFi ecosystem, which currently lags behind Ethereum with a total value locked of under $47 million compared to Ethereum's $52.8 billion. He believes that targeted grants and incentives could accelerate DeFi adoption on XRPL, transforming liquidity into a strategic tool for growth. Despite the initial success of First Ledger's initiative, Mekras emphasizes the need for Ripple to support DeFi startups more aggressively to improve XRPL's market position and address its underperformance in fee generation and active addresses.